94 is a horrifying short about the consequences of unrequited love. Everyone goes through it. You know, banterers, when you like a girl so much and she just doesn’t seem to care? Lucas cared a little too much, and this crush of his – Sandra – didn’t care at all. So of course, like a serial killer, he decides to take action and… uh.

So I didn’t really get everything. And I’m spoiling a lot by even fully disclosing Lucas’ identity here but, unfortunately, I have to in order to share my opinion on the film. The first half of the film it appeared that Lucas was with Sandra, and that they had a great thing going romantically. However, we came to learn that this was an alternate fantasy reality, and that the guy with Sandra was really someone else, and everything we’d seen thus far had been actually Raymond with Sandra, not Lucas. Lucas was just a friend who hung out. Creepy! Well Lucas showed up while Sandra was in the shower – with flowers – and he got her on the floor, and she was crying frantically. But there was blood everywhere, and what I didn’t understand was where it was from. He never stabbed her, he smacked her on the back sure, but nothing to draw blood. Essentially, in this rape like moment, Lucas whispered in her hear reasons for her to feel guilty ‘”you never noticed me, you only cared about Raymond,” and then he strangled her. Did she die? Did he just want to kill her? I’m not saying I wanted rape, I would never say that ever, I just don’t understand why he strangled her, being that the crime was rooted in his sexual failures of attracting her.

The film started out by putting a hell of a lot of weight on its shoulders. A philosophical voice over pondering existential thoughts on being, and how it all begins with a spark, and that there is a reason for everything. It just puts such a serious weight to the film, and so I was expecting, like, the most thought out thing ever. What I took for granted during this voice over was sound. The second the voice over is through then the short moves along and we hear dialog that – rather than being thrown in during post – clearly happened during shooting.  And the sound was bad. This is a great start up film, but I can spot “amateur” from a mile away if the background noises aren’t filtered out. They had boom mic operators, but juding by the credits there was no sound mixer. Without these operations lines are lost and background noises only distract. That being said, the editing was well done and the shots were incredible. Everyone looked good, and everything looked good. There were moments where I saw a wall with no posters, pictures or clocks on it – which looked rather bare and bad for film – but the majority of the film looked stunning.

I liked the actors who played Lucas, Sandra, and Raymond. Their names are Soren, Satu, and Anthem in real life. Cool, yeah? But I’m not so sure about everyone else. I only got to see the other actors during feel-good-drinking-with-the-bros moments, and they were pretty unnatural. It may have been the writing that caused it, as the dialog was plain noticeably cheesy there. During the more serious moments, however, I wasn’t bothered by the writing.

This was a serious short, only, it knew it – and all the serious stuff happened really rather abruptly! I’d have liked a bit more background. How did Lucas get in with Raymond’s crowd, and why did he go to the hospital? Did Raymond ever suspect Lucas of wanting to be with his girlfriend? It was something of a philosophical film, so I know the writer is capable of deep thought. It was an enjoyable short film, but it could have been more detailed.

The acting, directing, cinematography, and editing were what carried this short, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t captivated the entire time. I watched it with two friends who hate indie films, and just happened to be hanging out, and they liked it too. It was fun talking about it afterward: “Did you get the end?” “Yeah they wouldn’t have made it black and white if it wasn’t a flashback.” If this Luckypants crew gets better sound then I think we’d better watch out, because they’ve got great potential.

I’ll end by saying that I enjoyed the short – it was worth seeing – it just could have used some more attention to detail.